In terms of marketable intellectual properties, few are bigger than LEGO. When NetDevil and LEGO announced that they were partnering to create a LEGO-based MMO, the entire gaming industry lit up with excitement. While only a small amount of information has been released about LEGO Universe thus far, people have devoured that content as fast as possible. Everyone wants to know more about the upcoming MMO and how they'll be able to interact with the brick-and-block world.

Those gamers will have to wait a little longer for the finished product. This morning, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody Bye got on the phone with Mark Hansen, Director of Business Development for LEGO, to talk about the game and where they'll be heading in the future. The announcement of a delay to the game was enormous. Here's what Mark had to say about the delay:

The decision has been made within the company to wait to launch [LEGO Universe]. We're trying to align the physical play with the virtual play. We never know what products are going to be "hitting" or not, and we actually have a lot of products that are out there right now that are "hitting." We want to get the feel of LEGO into this game to match those products. We also don't want to detract from those products that are out there that are doing very well.

A lot of our decisions have been focused around what we're going to gain and what we're going to lose by holding this game back. We don't know how long we're going to delay the launch of [LEGO Universe], so I can't tell you anything specific on that. But we can say that it is going to be a delay of some time. Not a long period of time, but we don't know exactly how much.

You can expect Ten Ton Hammer's full interview with Mark Hansen about LEGO Universe later today and as quickly as our fingers can fly across the keyboard! Until then, keep your eyes and browsers locked squarely on Ten Ton Hammer.

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